A Simple Complication called Life

No Smoking (2007)

Remember those old bollywood murder mysteries where the detective or the Inspector explains the plot and the motive to the audience with the help of flashbacks even though there are many loopholes in the explanation. There is no question of questioning the climax because everything is explained by the Inspector/detective even though you may have some nagging doubts.

The point here is if you like such cinema where each and every aspect and plot is spoon fed to you and you really do not want to use your brain, please do not see Anurag Kashyap’s “No Smoking”. Unfortunately, 90% of the half filled theatre had audience who wanted spoon feeding and that the very tragedy of No Smoking. At the end of the movie, all they said was “I don’t get it”

“No Smoking” is bizarre, just as Anurag Kashyap said it would be. “K”, a chain smoker cannot give up smoking. His wife is fed up with his smoking and decides to leave him. Just to bring her back, he goes to Shri Shri Shri Baba Bangali recommended by a friend who has tried it himself and now completely given up smoking. K visits the baba just to get an idea about the cure only to find his life spiraling into a series of nightmare where the line between reality and imagination is too thin to notice the difference.

The Baba specifies rules if K touches a cigarette and the punishment for breaking the rule. The film then takes you through K’s journey and that is when the film edges toward bizarre. You really have to listen to each dialog and watch each action to understand the meaning. Although the movie does explains the climax to a large extent, it is left to the viewer to join the puzzle.

“No Smoking” is unusual film and even though it may sound cliched, its different. Right from the way the story is told to the way the characters are developed. The first half when K is pushed into signing the contact to leave smoking to the underground headquarter of the baba. It is all bizarre and different. The second part when his treatment actual starts, it turns more bizarre but then its not a normal movie. You have to think and interpret situations and you can have your own interpretion

Ayesha Takia is K’s wife and also his secretary and the dual role is explained in the movie. She is ok in the small role and has nothing much to do.

Ranvir Sheroy is K’s friend who guides K to the baba. He is good and the thing he does with his eyes. he is not in a comedy role but does well. He is shown scared when he is introduced and its evident that he is hiding something. He finally manipulates K to visit Baba Bangali

Paresh Rawal plays Baba Bangali and he is cold and menacing. He needs to be more menacing but then it was the way the character was developed. I remember Paresh Rawal’s villian role in the past. One with Kabzaa with Sunjay Dutt where he laughs as he drags the gun from an injured Sanya Dutt in the climax. Here he is cold and ruthless.

Finally John Abraham is K. He took a great risk to go against an image of a hunk and really do this role of an arrogant individual. K had to be arrogant and to have an attitude and John Abraham has that. The attitude and image to be K.

Anurag Kashyap weaves this surreal tale and hope he can do that again. He writes the story too and anything like this being attempted in Hindi cinema is simply fantastic. However he loses control on the second half and just before the climax, it becomes a little slow.

Hollywood movies like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “2001: A Space Oddessy”, “Shining”, “Donnie Darko” and “Mudholland Drive” are different movies in the way they tell the story. The audience is forced to think rather than just watch the movie. The clues and the plot is there. You just have to find them and everytime you see these movies, a new perspective , a new explanation comes forward. “No Smoking” is a movie in that league. It will be analyzed and re-analyzed till a logical explanation arrives or Anurag Kashyap’s explains the finer nuance of the movie.

“No Smoking” is not for everybody. Some may find the violence too realistic or the story too strange to digest. You may have to think before you can completely remove the movie from your mind. You either like the movie or you don’t but if you take efforts, you may at least start understanding what the director wants to say. Unfortunately most of the audience will not like it or just find it absurd.

Rating: 7/10

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8 Responses

The hollywood movies we talk about like “eternal sunshine”, “memento”,”fight club’ etc have been unconventional and bizzarre but had a strong logical flow which always became evident at the end of the movie.
But Anurag has made “No Smoking” more on the terms of a series of dream sequences of a chain smoker. Here in these dreams logic, corelataion and flow of story is not important. And that becomes a problem for most audiences. You cannot interpret as there seems to be so many unrelated unwanted sequences which seems unrelevant. The idea of the story does not become clear at the end. So no matter how pathbraking the movie was , it just does not work for the audience. I get a feel that Anurag is trying too hard to be different from convention just for the sake of being different. To be different from convention you need to be better with your story telling skills with your way.
But well , its just my opinion, there may be more intellectual people out there who get the logical interpretation of the movie.

Abhishek
I agree that the movie was not great. It was ok. Actually I did understand the concept and it was not as close to the original but then movies like this need to be viewed without a fixed mindset and frankly I was not prepared. All the movies like “Fight club” etc, I knew what to expect adn I got what I expected.
The audience did come with a wrong idea about the movie and the art of story telling is rather unconventional. He is trying to be different and it shows in the movie but lets say he wanted the movie to come out this way. I guess, have to see if the unrelated sequences are really unrealated or irrelavant. Like the time he is searching for his secretary, the next moment he is shown searching for his wife. It deserves one more viewing

One thing all of you have missed about this movie is that its inspired by Farnz Kafka’s works. The main protagonaist’s name is K. which is almost every protagonaist’s name Kafka gave. Its a tribute to surrealism. Thinking back on it and Kafka it makes sense now. Essentially it is a very Kafkesque story.